A really effective way of bootstrapping your start-up is to offshore and outsource your development. But doing this also carries risks, how can you be sure that you are going to get a developer who'll see it through and has the right experience? This post lays out an effective process to find the right developer.
From starting the search, to the first developer writing code, should take around 3-5 months and there may be further delays whilst you complete your documentation. In this article I'll talk you through what you should be doing at each stage, and what the objective of each stage should be. Here's an overview of the process:
This is a long process, and therefore I've split it up into 4 sections. These will be posted each week for the next four weeks. Regular readers of this series can relax: the whole lot has been written in advance, so there won't be any month long gaps in between!
]]> Finding a great development company is one of the most important decisions your company will make. Changing developers mid-way through a development is near impossible and so it is important that you select a company which you are confident has the ability to see it through. The purpose of this 8-step process is to stack the odds in your favor by finding out as much as possible about the development company before you sign the contract.At several stages I've included sample documentation to give you more guidance on what should be included. You can download these examples from the documentation bank on Aroxo.
Before we start, one word of advice. Running a vendor selection process will involve giving a large number of developers bad news (and only one company good news). When I first started doing this I found the process of giving bad news quite unpleasant. It is, but it is still important to do it. Vendors are used to receiving rejections, so they tend to take it more easily than expected and I also find that giving the bad news, along with some personalised feedback, is always much appreciated.
Step 1: Build a long-list
Before we start populating a long-list, it is worth spending a few minutes getting properly organised, as running a vendor selection process involves a lot of time, organisation and communication. I find it easiest to run these off a spreadsheet. There's a sample vendor dashboard included in the documentation bank.
Building a long list involves populating this dashboard. The aim is to get 20-30 companies into the dashboard that satisfy your broad requirements for the type of system you want to build. You want to make sure that each company has:
By far and away the hardest of these objectives to meet is the first. You may need to contact many companies to determine whether they have built a similar application to the one you're looking for.
In order to find companies, there are a few tricks you can employ:
You may need to look through a large number before you've found 20-30 companies which can meet the 4 requirements set out above.
Step 2: NDA everyone
You're a start-up (I'll return to this point later), so an NDA offers no protection. If you've got funds to sue a company then, frankly, they would be better spent fixing the mistake with a new developer. However, it is still essential that you NDA all the vendors, even though you are not going to be providing them with any confidential information (other than of your existence, just yet).
First thing you'll need is an actual NDA. There are plenty you can download for free on the web, so I've not provided one. Read it to make sure that you are comfortable with everything included in it. If you've selected a lawyer at this stage, ask them to provide an NDA, but don't pay them to write out a new one.
Email it to all the developers on your long-list and ask them to fax or scan signed copies back; and make sure there's a deadline for return in your email. When you receive one back, open up the Vendor Dashboard and update it so that you don't forget you've received it. Then print it out and file it.
When you hit the deadline, ignore any further submissions. If the development company can't meet this simple deadline. they are not going to meet any further deadlines.
In next week's post I'll detail how to write and issue an RFI; and then short-list your developers.
]]>Also, You can look at the present clientèle to judge their experience in the specific domain to which you product belongs.
Once you have shortlisted a particular vendor, you would have to decide on which kind of billing model you would want to choose. Usually, you will find the TnM (Time and Money) model where every offshore engineer gets billed every month until the duration of the project or a FPP (Fixed Price Project) where you pay a fixed price irrespective of the offshore team size. FPP will work well for shorted duration projects. But usually, Service companies/vendors will give you greater discounts in TnM, especially if you agree to set up the offshore development center within their premises.
An other model of offshoring is that, instead of searching for a service provider/vendor, you may want to setup a branch/subsidary of your company in a different geography. This branch/subsidary can either do full-fledged development or can manage the vendors to whom the project is ultimately outsourced.
Looking forward to reading the rest of the series.
]]>my htmlcenter forums get pounded with offshore spam daily. here's one I just received - I have removed the link to the spammer.
http://forums.htmlcenter.com/showthread.php?t=4322
Great post. As a professional who has worked extensively in the "best shore" strategy of having a development company here in the States and utilizing offshore developers in Easter Europe and elsewhere, your post is well written and true.
Looking forward to more.
]]>I always remember working with a client who had both me (here in the states) and offshore teams working on the same project.
It was a bit strange, but I got the feeling he just enjoyed being able to chat with me on the phone in plain english and layout what he needed done.
Contrast this to spending 3 hours on a design document, then still having back & forth with an offshore team for clarification on what exactly you mean re: some areas of the doc.
]]>I'll never read this website again. You just lost a subscriber.
]]>The NDA is only a starting point for problem resolution in the case of IP theft/leaks. In other words, it doesn't inherently prevent theft OR use of your ideas & IP, it only allows you to point to your document and say "Hey you can't do that, see, we have a signed NDA!" Then the *real* fun begins.
It's hard enough enforcing an NDA or contract with a local company (local meaning same country, not necessarily in the same postal code!) But try living in Los Angeles and enforcing an NDA with a company in Moscow or Bangalore or Beijing... the NDA is useless. Unless you're familiar with international law and have the stomach for dealing with this type of problem, you should also contemplate the potential pitfalls and hazards of throwing something over the wall when the wall is 100 ft high and 5000 miles away.
]]>and re point 1: to do this properly, it is so time-consuming that using a slightly more expensive on-shore developer probably works out better.
i certainly think that for initial prototypes and easily manageable development modules that off-shore teams should be considered. but its usually a false economy.
for me, personal recommendation to get immediately to a couple of options is still 10x better than going through the process of listing RFQs etc. in the past i have used several off-shore firms that haven't been any good at all - but in terms of what has worked for us:
we have used http://www.thrusites.com in the UK - who have been excellent - used to working with startups and very cost-effective.
we have used http://arsthanea.com/ in Poland for Flash work - exceptional team, much better value than top UK Flash agencies that we have also tried.
]]>Development has changed; it's more efficient to get one good US developer using modern tools to get the site done. It's really so much easier there is 80% less code required these days (actual metrics from real projects). It's about smart development not a bunch of communication overhead dealing w/ overseas developers. this is 5-10 year old advice.
]]>1. Do a thorough search on the individual using every possible options like google,forums,networking sites etc before hiring.It pays! I also insist on references from previous clients and cross check before hiring somebody.
Basically it boils down to experience and your exposure to outsourcing before one gets an idea as how to go about finding right talent overseas.I have been using the programming services of this girl from India for the past 1 year and found her amazing to work with.Exceptional talent- http://www.vantrix.net
]]>I would also suggest to have a look at linkedin and xing for recommendations about the companies and the background of their employees. Most companies in this sector are somehow represented there.
An other thing I would request at a certain point are code samples. Of course you need some developer at hand which you can trust for estimating the work.
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